time she had her back to the entrance. She turned and he was struck again by her confidence. Nothing about her spoke of the cowering fear he’d seen in his mother.
She wore a white blouse with the sleeves pushed up near the elbows. Black bands held them out of her way while she worked to gather the letters that would shape the stories she’d written. An ink-stained apron covered the front of her clothes. Her brown hair had been kissed by the sun and shone lighter around her face. A smudge of ink peeked from behind the tresses that escaped their pins and hung loose on her forehead. Green eyes met his again. The wariness he’d detected earlier came back with a vengeance.
“Miss Ellison, I’ve brought the sheriff with me to show you something.” He knew the best way to deal with unexpected or unpleasant news was to get right to it.
“Let’s not get in a rush now, Mr. Ivy.” Sheriff Collins spoke up. The man’s disheveled clothes and tired face made Jared wonder how well he could be protecting the citizens of Pine Haven. He looked like he needed a fresh shave and a good night’s rest.
Jared wouldn’t wait. Best to handle things immediately. “I see no need to dawdle.”
Sheriff Collins looked him up and down. “I don’t know how I feel about a cowboy who talks like a schoolteacher.”
Mary Lou Ellison chuckled. “I’m not sure what to make of him, either, Sheriff.” She put down the letters she was sorting and came to stand in front of the press. “He says he’s Mr. Ivy’s grandson, but he’s nothing like the way his grandpa described him.”
“He hadn’t seen me in almost twenty years.” Jared was losing patience with these two.
“That’s what troubles me.” Mary Lou pointed at him. “Why didn’t you come see him in all that time?”
The sheriff ran his hand over the stubble on his chin. “That’s a good question.”
“My business is not the business of either of you.” Jared watched the sheriff stand a bit straighter at his rebuff.
“Mr. Ivy, if you want my help in solving this situation, you’re gonna need to hold your words a bit.”
Mary Lou spoke up. “What situation, Sheriff?” Her eyes darted from the sheriff to him.
“Seems Mr. Ivy here has a will from Jacob Ivy saying the paper belongs to him.”
Her face blanched at the sheriff’s announcement. Jared hated to cause her pain, but Grump and his father had wanted him to have the paper. He’d let his grandfather down his whole life. He wouldn’t deny the man the legacy he’d earned by building the Pine Haven Record to what it was today. His mother had prevented contact with Grump since his father had died. Without her presence to hinder him—God rest her soul—he would follow through with his father and Grump’s wishes now.
Mary Lou turned to the sheriff. “The paper is mine. You were there the day Mr. Little gave me the deed.”
Sheriff Collins nodded in agreement. “I remember, Mary Lou. It’s just that you didn’t have a real will. All we had was your word saying what Mr. Ivy had told you.”
“So that’s how you got the paper.” He wondered if she’d swindled Grump in his old age. Had Grump lost his reasoning? Did she hoodwink him?
Her wary eyes became daggers. “Don’t you dare accuse me of swindling Jacob Ivy.” The level tone of her voice spoke of controlled rage. Was she guilty and trying to cover it, or had she really cared about his grandfather? “He was like a father to me.”
“He wasn’t like a grandfather to me. He was my grandfather.” It was best to say it and put everything out in the open. He reached into his vest for the will. “See for yourself.”
Mary Lou took the will from his hand and unfolded the aged document. Her eyes skimmed the page. She folded it and gave it back.
“It says the land and the paper are mine.” He tucked the will away.
“I read it.” She turned to the sheriff. “Sheriff, you know Mr. Ivy wanted me to have the paper. You know how close we were. How he taught me about the newspaper business. Even if Jared Ivy is his grandson, does that mean he can come in and take away what was given to me?”
Sheriff Collins looked at Mary Lou and then at Jared. “She’s right. The old man loved her. He took her in years ago.”
“I’m glad to hear he had people in his life who loved him.” Jared patted his vest pocket. “But his wishes are plain. I found this will in my mother’s things after she died. Grump must have sent it to her when I was a boy.”
Sheriff Collins asked, “Did you come here just to make your claim to the paper?”
Jared shook his head. “I came here to see my grandfather. I didn’t know he’d passed.” To his surprise, Mary Lou validated his words.
“That’s true. He came in asking for Mr. Ivy.” It seemed she was a person of integrity. If she’d chosen to lie about that, there would be nothing he could do to prove her wrong.
“Don’t see why you brung the will then.” The sheriff seemed to be doubting his word.
“I brought everything I own with me. My intent is to settle in Pine Haven.” Jared glanced at Mary Lou. “I had hoped for the opportunity to spend time with Grump.”
Sheriff Collins grunted and looked at both of them. “Only thing I know to do is make you sell it and split the profit.”
“No!” Mary Lou stomped her foot as she said the word.
Jared agreed with her on this point. “The paper is not for sale.”
She persisted. “I’d never sell. Mr. Ivy worked too hard to build the Record to what it is today.”
He seized on her words. “And you said yourself, he built it for my family.”
She glared at him then. “And you didn’t want it!” The vehemence in her words was palpable.
“I didn’t know about it.”
She scoffed. “How could you not know? He wrote you every week. Page after page. He even included a copy of the paper hoping you’d use the schooling he paid for to help him make it better.”
“I’m going to do just that.” His words were as forceful as hers.
Grump had paid for his schooling? He didn’t have the heart to tell this angry woman and the sheriff that he hadn’t known about the letters. That his mother had confessed to burning them without telling him of their existence. Her deathbed confessions about so many things had driven him to return to Pine Haven and finally connect with the only relative he had left. Only now Grump was gone, too. Resentment of his mother’s secretive silence about his father’s family, and the revelation that she’d hidden them from him for the whole of his life, had instilled in him a deep mistrust of women. Mary Lou’s quick move to take ownership of the paper without contacting him echoed his mother’s furtive actions and reinforced that mistrust.
The sheriff twisted his brow in a frown. “Don’t know exactly what to do.” He rubbed the stubble on his chin with one hand. “I reckon the two of you will have to run the paper together until the judge comes to town. He’ll have to sort it out for you.”
“Run it together?” Mary Lou’s protest was incredulous.
“I have no intention of sharing my inheritance with a perfect stranger.” Jared wouldn’t give up the last claim he had to a family connection. He had no living relatives and wouldn’t let what was rightly his slip away from him to pacify a small-town sheriff or placate a woman who had entrenched herself in his grandfather’s life. Possibly for the sole purpose of gaining his fortune at his death.
“It’s not your inheritance.” Mary Lou took a step toward him. “It’s mine. You may be blood kin, but I was the only family Jacob Ivy had for the last eight years.”
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